


Penelope

by dralexreid



Series: Dr Piper Bishop [13]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:27:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27042730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dralexreid/pseuds/dralexreid
Relationships: Dr Spencer Reid/Dr Piper Bishop
Series: Dr Piper Bishop [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972852
Kudos: 26





	Penelope

Piper held her head in her hands. This wasn’t meant to happen. Not to her. She was last to text her so she’d been called first. She’d called in the others who were starting to file in, all tired. JJ lay her head against the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. Spencer was pacing and Rossi just stood, trying not to crack. Derek was the second last to show up followed up by Emily. Piper ignored her throbbing shoulder and gratefully accepted the coffee Emily handed to her. She hadn’t eaten since they’d flown back in so Piper dragged Spencer to the cafe downstairs to get her a treat for when she’d wake up. As she paid for the warm croissant and a bagel, they talked about their first time meeting her.

_Spencer had just joined the FBI at 23, the youngest SSA agent in years. Garcia was the only one almost the same age as him and yet, so completely different. He’d met her, really met her when the team was getting into its stride. He’d been blabbing on about Doctor Who to Derek who wasn’t paying attention except she hit him in the head for not liking the New Who because it wasn’t as ‘science-y’. “The point of Doctor Who is for computer and science nerds and anyone who is weird and wacky to feel like they belong. Do not diss Christopher Eccleston.”_

“Wait, you don’t like Christopher Eccleston?” Piper had looked at him in outrage. “Now I want to hit you.” Spencer chuckled and continued his story.

_After that case, she’d found him and pulled him into her GarciaCave and they’d watched a marathon of the Ninth Doctor, getting him hooked into the New Who series. Every week after that, they’d meet up to watch the week’s episodes on Sunday before debating over the science of it all._

As they stood in the elevator inching upwards, Piper remembered their first meeting.

_Piper had heard of the mysterious ‘baby girl’ from Morgan and had wanted to meet her. So she waited in the office, playing with a Rubix cube, criss-cross on her desk. Garcia had walked in and almost dropped her mug of coffee. Before even knowing anything about her, she’d offered to plan a housewarming party once they got back from their case on Friday._

She walked into much the same scenario they’d left. Derek held his head in his hands. Rossi was pacing. JJ was leaning on Emily’s shoulder. Hotch came in, pulling Derek aside. “I spoke to the lead detective. He doesn’t think we’ll get anything from the scene. David and I will go to the scene. I think the rest of you should be here when she wakes up. I don’t care about protocol. I don’t care whether we’re working this officially or not. We don’t touch any new cases until we find out who did this.”

Piper wiped tears threatening to spill over with shaky hands outside Penelope’s room. She exhaled shakily as Rossi walked over to her. “You okay?”

“M fine. I just don’t wanna cry in there because if I cry then she’ll cry and if she cries then JJ’ll cry and then we’ll all just be this sobbing mess that Derek will make fun of,” she rambled as Rossi enveloped her, his Italian cologne calming her down, rubbing her back. “Mphanks.”

“She’s gonna be fine. Garcia’s strong. We’ll find who did this, just like you said.”

“I should come with you,” she said as he released her.

“You aren’t cle-”

“I don’t care. Someone shot my friend and I want t- I need to help, Rossi, please. Please.” 

“I’m sorry Piper, stay here. She needs you more. We got this.”

As Penelope’s eyes opened, she saw Piper snoring softly on the armchair next to her, book in hand and Spencer sat on the floor, head resting on the arm of the armchair. As Penelope winced, adjusting herself, the two geniuses woke abruptly. Piper tossed her book aside to reach for Penelope. “You okay?”

“Mhmm.”

“How are you feeling?” Spencer asked as his hand wrapped around Penelope’s.

“Confused… stupid, and… in pain.” 

“Are you up for some questions?” Piper slapped his arm, about to chastise him when Penelope replied.

“I never saw it coming. He seemed… Deliciously normal.” 

“You know him?”

“Derek was right, I should have trusted my gut.” 

“Penelope, who was he?”

“It’s that guy I told him about. The one I met at the coffee shop. I wanted to believe he was interested in me.”

“Forget that, Pen. None of this is your fault.”

“I let my guard down,” she moaned.

“Do you have any idea why he would have done this? Did he threaten you? Did he want something?” 

“I just thought he liked me.”

“Honey, we need a name.”

“James…James Colby Baylor.” Spencer got up to call Derek as Piper clutched Penelope’s hand.

“It’s okay, we’re gonna get you through this, just breathe.”

“Jeez, is this how you felt?”

“Something like it. I’m sorry Penny.”

“There’s nothing you could have done.” Piper just rubbed her hand comfortingly until Spencer called her outside.

“He staged it to look like a robbery. If he’s smart enough to use forensic countermeasures, odds are the name he gave Garcia is probably bogus.”

“Yeah, but why target Garcia?”

“Rossi said it could sadist who gets off on gaining her trust and then trying to kill her.”

“Yeah, but he just happens to pick the FBI’s tech analyst?” They were interrupted by JJ who reported that Garcia’s morphine was wearing off. “I’ll call Derek, you go see her.”

Derek leaned over his baby girl, clutching her hand. “When I was in the ambulance, I could hear the song heroes playing in my head. I kept flashing in and out of consciousness. Everything was really bright. And I remember thinking, wait… Is David Bowie really God?” Derek smiled despite himself, as did Spencer. 

“We have a sketch artist coming in.” 

“I’m still a little hazy.” 

“It’s ok. Anything you tell us will help. This guy say what he did for a living?” 

“He said he was a lawyer.” 

“Did people know him where you went?” 

“He said he wanted to show me a place. It was half an hour away.” 

“You drove together? What kind of car?” 

“White. 4-door sedan. American. It smelled new.” 

“Rental car maybe?” 

“Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t look at things like you guys do. I don’t see danger–”

“Hey, it’s okay. Take it easy, take it easy. What else can you remember?” 

“He smelled good.”

“He seem nervous?” 

“I thought he was just afraid to kiss me good night.” 

“Hey. You sure you’re up for this?”

Spencer walked out of the room, rubbing his arm. He noticed Piper swirling her coffee as she sat, bent over, staring at her shoes. “She’s gonna be okay.”

“Yeah. It’s just… it’s not meant to be this way. When I was… The first person I saw was her. She’s meant to be the nurse, the one that brings cookies, the one that makes us feel better. Not. Not this. This feels worse.” Her cell buzzed and she flipped it open. “Yeah Hotch?…No, he’s right here…Yeah sure…okay, stay safe.” She flipped it shut and started shakily. “Police took the sketch to the coffee shop, restaurant, came up empty. Even ran it through VICAP. No hits. No luck with the rental car companies. No prints at the scene. No shell casings.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “The cell phone the guy used to call Garcia at work was a disposable. He just shot her and…poof.”

“Derek’s going through the scene with her. Remember what Gideon always used to say?”

“The deadliest weapon we have is a thorough and accurate profile.”

“Word for word.”

“Helps that he said it that often.” They chuckled. Spencer held out his hand and she almost took it. Almost. Except her cell buzzed again. “Huh.”

“What?” Spencer faltered, taking his hand back.

“It’s Drew.”

“Who?”

“Uh, Andrew, the detective from Florida. You go on in. I’m gonna tell him this isn’t a good time.” She smiled quickly before walking over to the window.

Derek walked through the evening with Penelope.

_The waiter asked the couple for their preferred drink. “We’ll have a bottle of sancerre.”_

_“Actually, I drink red.”_

_“Trust me, you’ll love it._ _“_

“So he was trying to impress you by showing you how he can take charge.” 

“I guess so.” 

“Tell me about his watch.” 

“It’s a fake Rolex.” 

“You sure about that?” 

“I know my knockoffs.” 

“Clearly he was playing with it, though, ‘cause he wanted you to notice. I mean, he wanted you to think that it was real. Garcia, are you ok?” 

“I’m feeling really exposed.” Piper walked into the room, taking a seat next to Garcia.

“You’re doing just fine. Just fine. What happened next?” 

_“So you work for the FBI. That’s glamorous.”_

_“Mm-hmm. If you want to call 14-hour days cloistered in a small, dark room, surrounded by violent images, glamorous, then hells yeah. Absolutely. It’s Paris in the twenties.”_

_“You work murder cases?”_

_“Mm-hmm. 24/7.”_

_“I see. That’s the big-time right there. You’re like a cop and big brother all rolled into one.”_

_“I like to think of myself as a tireless crusader for world karma.”_

_“Right.”_

_“What about you?”_

_“Ah, I don’t know. School in new haven, law school in Boston– Cambridge, I guess, technically. It’s all one college town.”_

_“What kind of law do you practice?”_

_“I was a city attorney. But once you’ve had a murder case dismissed for judicial ineptitude or a random collateral estoppel, let’s just say private practice starts making a lot of sense. People can get away with murder for other people’s incompetence. Well, why am I telling you this? I’m sure you see it all the time.”_

_“To karma.”_

“Hold up. City attorneys don’t try murder cases,” Piper said, eyebrows furrowed. “But, he knows enough to use legal terminology, though he’s not actually a working lawyer. I think we’re looking at someone who failed out of law school or didn’t pass the bar.” Derek looked at her confused. “My brother's a lawyer in Maine. I helped him pass the bar exam. I’ll call Hotch.”

Back at Quantico, Hotch put Piper on speaker in the conference room before asking, “Did Garcia say if he gave any details about the cases he was supposedly working?” 

_“No specifics. If he failed out of the system, it could explain why he’s got a working vocabulary and not much more.”_

“It could also explain his anger. Even in his lie, he rails against other people’s incompetence.” 

“ _Well, he’s clearly a narcissist. The clothes, the watch, the subtle hints at where he went to school. He’s faking humility when he’s saying New Haven and Cambridge instead of Yale and Harvard._ ” 

“Okay, thanks, Piper.” Hotch cut the line and addressed JJ. “We need an analyst who can, uh, put our information through the legal databases.“

Piper helped Garcia up and out of bed. She clutched her hand, Derek on the other side, helping her out to get her things. Derek offered to take her home so Spencer and Piper drove back to the BAU. JJ wrapped her in a hug. “Morgan’s with Garcia, he’s keeping watch on her.” They asked Hotch what needed to be done.

“We found an encrypted file on her hard drive. Internal Affairs is investigating, we’ve been put on hold.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know.” JJ pulled out her cell. “Yeah, Derek…Is she okay? Alright, we’ll be there in 5.” She flipped the phone shut as she turned to the team. “The shooter came back to finish the job.”

“Did he?”

“No, but he shot another officer twice.”

“Jesus,” Piper whispered. “We have to go there.”

^-^

“What’s going on?” JJ knelt beside Penelope as Piper offered Derek coffee.

“I don’t know. This guy’s getting seriously bold, and I can guarantee it’s not over,” Derek murmured as he grasped the hot coffee. 

"I don’t know what he wants from me,” Penelope whispered. 

“Could you know anything about him?” Spencer pulled up a chair.

“I don’t know.” 

“Maybe you have something he wants?” 

“I don’t know who he is. I’m so scared.” Hotch, Rossi and Prentiss started to file in.

“You get a good look at him?” Emily asked as she stood behind Penelope rubbing her back. 

“Nothing solid.”

“I don’t get it, how could he know Penelope was okay, or that she was coming back here?”

“Could’ve asked around. Or just came back to check, saw the security, decided to try his luck.”

“Well, we have to keep her safe. Maybe at the hospital?”

“No. No, I don’t wanna go back there.”

“Pen-”

“No, I feel safe with all of you.” 

Hotch intervened. “We’ll take her to the BAU.” JJ stood up, waiting for Penelope to follow but the latter kept staring at the doorway. 

“When we were at dinner…” she started. “They wanted to seat us by a window, but he insisted on sitting at the worst table in the place. And he sat with his back to the corner.”

“Pen, tell us about the car,” Piper prompted from behind. 

“Why?” Garcia turned to face her.

“Just humour me. You said it was white, 4-door, American. What else?” 

“That’s it. It was just a car.” 

“No, come on, think. Anything.” 

“The seat belt was buckled behind his back.” Piper’s forehead relaxed and she made eye contact with Derek. “Why does that matter?” 

“It wasn’t a rental,” Derek said evenly. “It was for surveillance.” 

“Agents don’t wear seat belts,” Piper explained. “They need to get out in a hurry.”

Rossi launched forward towards Garcia. “Alright let’s cut the crap. You need to be straight with us. Right now. Look at me, not them.” Piper glanced at Hotch, slightly panicked at Rossi’s higher voice. The voice he uses to get information out of people. 

“I’m not hiding anything.” 

“You got shot. Most people get shot for a reason.” Penelope turned to look at Derek. “Eyes here!”

“Ease up, Rossi,” Derek warned.

“You got a roomful of people here willing to believe that an FBI agent has tried to kill you. We need to know everything you do on company time that we don’t know about. What?” 

“It’s nothing bad.” 

“Spit it out!”

“It’s ju– I counsel victims’ families and they know where I work, so sometimes they ask me to look into cases for them.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“It just means that the cases, the unsolved ones, I tag them, so whoever’s investigating them knows that the FBI considers them a priority.” 

“You’re not authorised to do that,” Hotch warned. 

“I know. I was just trying to help.”

“But whoever’s working those cases thinks you’re watching them,” Emily added up. 

“I just wanted to put pressure on them so that they don’t slide.” 

“Well, how many cases are we talking about?” Piper slid into the seat next to Penelope. 

“I don’t know. 7, 8 maybe. I need to get into my system.” 

“You can’t. You’re suspended,” Hotch deadpanned.

“Wait up. Penelope, you said this guy was pressing to know if you dealt with murder cases. Hotch, we need a look at those files.” Hotch instinctively turned to Rossi.

“I told you, I’m sick of this jackass being in front of us.”

“Morgan, Reid, Bishop and Prentiss, we’ll go back to the BAU. Stay here and make sure no one forgets to log out of the system. Garcia should not have access.”

Piper made everyone coffee except for her and Spencer who had already had half a dozen cups. While the two doctors argued over how much coffee is too much coffee, Derek crossed his arms, staring out the window. Emily walked over to him, mirroring his posture. “What’s she doing in there?” she asked over Piper’s yelling at Spencer, listing side effects of over-caffeinating. Derek and Emily glanced over at Penelope in bed with her laptop, mumbling to the bumbling idiot on the other side of the screen trying to backhack her.

“You really wanna know?” Emily and Derek gratefully accepted Piper’s coffee while Spencer pouted over his cup of tea. When Penelope finally hacked her way into her own system, Derek handed out copies of all the files she flagged, looking for overlapping agents on each case. Reid flipped through the cases, quickly pointing out that no FBI agents were on these cases.

“It’s the same first responder though in three cases,” Emily noted. “Jason Clark Battle.”

“Same initials.” Garcia moved to her laptop, typing in the name. “All three were drive-by shootings all shot with a revolver,” Piper added. A familiar face flashed on the screen. “Pen, is that him?”

“Yeah.” Reid moved closer to the screen.

“He’s been honoured twice as a hero.”

“So why’s he stuck at deputy?” Garcia turned to Derek.

“Because even to his superiors, something was off about him.”

“Of course,” Piper closed her eyes in frustration both at her shoulder and her case. “The showy clothes, the subtle bragging, the inherent narcissism. Presents himself as a prominent attorney when he’s actually just a deputy sheriff.”

“Under-appreciated in the world and over-appreciated in his own mind. I think you may have stumbled upon an angel of death.” 

“I thought those are nurses who put people out of their misery,” Penelope murmured.

“That’s one model.” Piper leaned over, placing her chin on the crook of her neck, interlacing her fingers around her. “The other is someone who puts people at risk in order to save them.”

“So he shot them so that he could save them?” 

“Yeah. and when he couldn’t, he made it look like a random murder. It’s how he was able to be the first responder. It’s called hero homicide complex.” 

“It’s most commonly found in firemen who set fires in order to save the day,” Reid added. Piper released her. 

“So how do we find him?” Before anyone could say a word, Garcia’s voice piqued their interest.

“Okay, that’s funky.”

“Why, what’s up?” Emily asked her.

“He just logged in to my system. There’s a link up on my screen.” 

“Maybe it’s a mistake?” 

“No. he’s good. He’s not careless.” 

“Could he be trying to show you something?” 

“He could be baiting me.”

“What do you mean?” 

“If he’s with internal affairs, and I follow his lead, whosever login I use could lose their job.” 

“What’s your gut say?” Morgan asked her softly. 

“He’s a hacker. We have a code.” 

“You trust it?” 

“I have to.” 

“Do it. Make contact.” A few minutes and noise of a clattering keyboard later, They watched the TV screen flash on with CCTV footage of the BAU. In it, next to a desk stood Deputy Jason Clark Battle. Morgan pulled out his cell and Piper made to leave. 

“Woah, Pipes you’re not-”

“If one more person tells me I’m not cleared for the field, I will get my step-stool and punch them in the eye. My bike is out front, I can get there the fastest.”

As Piper sped through to Quantico, Hotch and Rossi subtly walked out of their offices steadily approaching Battle. Piper jumped off her bike, reaching the base in 2 minutes flat. She sprinted through security, flashing her badge to the security guard, running up the stairs to level 4. She skidded out of the stairwell and exhaled. Panting, she kept out of his line of vision, her shoulder still throbbing. Her forefinger lay on the trigger as she lined up to the concrete before the glass. Edging forward, she pulled a makeup mirror in front of her, keeping an eye on Battle. She saw him leaning over the other analyst’s desk, glancing back and forth nervously. “C’mon.” She couldn’t shoot until he made a move. The agent from Internal Affairs approached him, and in a flash, the deputy had his gun to the agent’s head. Piper stowed away the mirror and turned, sidestepping through the glass doors and quietly moved into a corner, gun aimed for Battle. She exhaled, ignored the throbbing pain in her shoulder, ignoring Rossi’s mellow voice persuading him to let go and squeezed. Two shots rang out, Battle fell to the floor, blood oozing from the back of his head and the other agent stood still, shaking. Piper dropped her firearm, clutching her shoulder, breathing heavily and dropped to one knee in pain. As the others ran in, Piper was being bandaged by a paramedic and Battle was being carried away on a gurney, a sheet pulled over his head. Penelope ran over to Piper, waving away the paramedic to hug her tightly. “Penelope, she just put a fresh bandage on that.”

“I can’t believe you did that. I never wanted you to do that.”

“I didn’t think I could. Being shot at really makes you reconsider shooting someone else.” Piper looked at Garcia and cupped her face. “But for you, I didn’t even hesitate.” Piper pulled at Penelope’s hands. “By the way, I think someone can’t stop staring at you.” Penelope’s forehead crinkled and she looked over to see the other tech analyst getting up from his seat.

“Do you believe everything happens for a reason?”

“I believe things happen because we make them happen.” Piper kissed her forehead gently. “Go get him, babe.” As Piper watched the two nerds unite, her best nerd jumped onto the table beside her. 

“You okay?”

“Be fine once I take my meds.”

“You haven’t-”

“Jeez, you worrywart.” Piper bumped him with her good shoulder. “In the chaos of yesterday and today I haven’t eaten and I can’t take my meds if I don’t eat.” Spencer nodded.

“I know a good place. You in?”

Piper smiled. But Spencer watched it fade. “I can’t. I still have to talk to Hotch about taking a break and I promised Drew I’d call him later. Thanks for offering.” She patted him and he watched her climb up to Hotch’s office, wincing at her shoulder. Derek joined him. 

“What’s up Pretty Boy?”

“She bailed on me for Drew.”

“I’m sure you’re making it worse than it is.”

“She bailed on dinner with me to talk to Drew. I don’t even have a chance.”

“Kid-”

“Have you seen him, Derek? He’s like athletic and handsome and he has blue eyes and he’s a detective. Look at me. My posture’s always wonky, my tie’s perpetually crooked, my hair’s a mess and I’m a ‘pipe cleaner’, which she heard, by the way, thanks to Rossi.”

“You’re also a genius, Reid.”

“I’ve memorised books. That’s not the same and she knows it.”

“Alright. You trust me?”

“No.” Derek laughed.

“Give me a shot. I’ll figure out if she really likes this guy.”


End file.
